Amarna Letters - Musicians

This relief is from Tell el Amarna and depicts musicians blindfolded. It is from the 14th century B.C. (Israel Museum)

This clay tablet relief depicts musicians blindfolded. The tell El Amarna Tablets were a great archaeological discovery along the east bank of the Nile River in Egypt. The Amarna letters belong to the royal archives of Amenophis III and his son Amenophis IV. The Amarna Letters are highly important because they refer to events in the 15th and 14th centuries B.C. They provide the first evidence of the Hebrew tribes entering into the land of Canaan in ancient times.

The Tell El Amarna Tablets

Tell El Amarna is the modern name of a city on the east bank of the Nile River called Akhetaton. It was situated almost 200 miles south of Cairo and flourished in the 14th century BC. It was the capital city of Thebes and built by Amenophis IV with his queen Nefertiti. They dedicated the city to the God Aton, the sun-god. During the 19th century archaeologists discovered many tablets, hundreds of cuneiform tablets, from the 14th century BC. The Pharaoh of Egypt had placed them there because they were not written in Egyptian hieroglyphics. They were cuneiform clay tablet letters written to the Pharaoh from vassal princes of the Empire, from Syria and Israel, and also from ASSYRIA, Babylonia, and Mitanni. The tablets reveal much about the world in the 14th century BC. Including an invasion of a strange people called the Habiru people and they were conquering the land of Israel, therefore there were complaints made to Pharaoh about these people. When the Pharaoh died his monotheistic religion died as well, and Thebes became the capital of Egypt once again.

Joshua 23:5 - And the LORD your God, he shall expel them from before you, and drive them from out of your sight; and ye shall possess their land, as the LORD your God hath promised unto you.

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British Museum Excerpt

The Bible mentions a lot regarding God's promises:

Deuteronomy 15:6 - For the LORD thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee.

Deuteronomy 27:3 - And thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law, when thou art passed over, that thou mayest go in unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, a land that floweth with milk and honey; as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee.

Joshua 23:15 - Therefore it shall come to pass, [that] as all good things are come upon you, which the LORD your God promised you; so shall the LORD bring upon you all evil things, until he have destroyed you from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you.

Deuteronomy 12:20 - When the LORD thy God shall enlarge thy border, as he hath promised thee, and thou shalt say, I will eat flesh, because thy soul longeth to eat flesh; thou mayest eat flesh, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after.

2 Chronicles 6:10 - The LORD therefore hath performed his word that he hath spoken: for I am risen up in the room of David my father, and am set on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built the house for the name of the LORD God of Israel.

2 Chronicles 6:16 - Now therefore, O LORD God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that which thou hast promised him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit upon the throne of Israel; yet so that thy children take heed to their way to walk in my law, as thou hast walked before me.

Deuteronomy 23:23 - That which is gone out of thy lips thou shalt keep and perform; [even] a freewill offering, according as thou hast vowed unto the LORD thy God, which thou hast promised with thy mouth.

2 Chronicles 6:15 - Thou which hast kept with thy servant David my father that which thou hast promised him; and spakest with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled [it] with thine hand, as [it is] this day.

1 Kings 8:20 - And the LORD hath performed his word that he spake, and I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built an house for the name of the LORD God of Israel.

Deuteronomy 10:9 - Wherefore Levi hath no part nor inheritance with his brethren; the LORD [is] his inheritance, according as the LORD thy God promised him.

1 Kings 9:5 - Then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel.

Deuteronomy 19:8 - And if the LORD thy God enlarge thy coast, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, and give thee all the land which he promised to give unto thy fathers;

Deuteronomy 26:18 - And the LORD hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee, and that [thou] shouldest keep all his commandments;

Deuteronomy 6:3 - Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do [it]; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.

Joshua 22:4 - And now the LORD your God hath given rest unto your brethren, as he promised them: therefore now return ye, and get you unto your tents, [and] unto the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you on the other side Jordan.

James 2:5 - Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?

1 Kings 2:24 - Now therefore, [as] the LORD liveth, which hath established me, and set me on the throne of David my father, and who hath made me an house, as he promised, Adonijah shall be put to death this day.

Deuteronomy 9:28 - Lest the land whence thou broughtest us out say, Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them, and because he hated them, he hath brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.

Nehemiah 9:23 - Their children also multipliedst thou as the stars of heaven, and broughtest them into the land, concerning which thou hadst promised to their fathers, that they should go in to possess [it].

Jeremiah 33:14 - Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.

2 Chronicles 21:7 - Howbeit the LORD would not destroy the house of David, because of the covenant that he had made with David, and as he promised to give a light to him and to his sons for ever.

1 Kings 5:12 - And the LORD gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him: and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon; and they two made a league together.

Hebrews 12:26 - Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.

Joshua 9:21 - And the princes said unto them, Let them live; but let them be hewers of wood and drawers of water unto all the congregation; as the princes had promised them.

Joshua 23:5 - And the LORD your God, he shall expel them from before you, and drive them from out of your sight; and ye shall possess their land, as the LORD your God hath promised unto you.

2 Samuel 7:28 - And now, O Lord GOD, thou [art] that God, and thy words be true, and thou hast promised this goodness unto thy servant:

Hebrews 11:11 - Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.

2 Kings 8:19 - Yet the LORD would not destroy Judah for David his servant's sake, as he promised him to give him alway a light, [and] to his children.

Esther 4:7 - And Mordecai told him of all that had happened unto him, and of the sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasuries for the Jews, to destroy them.

James 1:12 - Blessed [is] the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.